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THE  CHURCH’S  TASK  IN  THE 

NEW  AGE 


BY 


WILLIAM  PALMER  LADD,  M.  A.,  B.D., 
DEAN  OF  THE  BERKELEY  DIVINITY  SCHOOL 


BEING  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  IN  MIDDLE- 
TOWN,  CONNECTICUT,  ON  THE  DAY  OF  SS.  SIMON 
AND  JUDE,  OCTOBER  28TH,  A.  D.  1918 


THE  CHURCH’S  TASK  IN  THE  NEW  AGE 


As  the  war  draws  to  an  end  we  become  increasingly  aware  that  we 
are  approaching  a  new  era  in  the  life  of  the  nation,  and  indeed  in  the 
history  of  our  civilization.  The  old  world  into  which  we  were  born 
and  in  which  we  grew  up,  the  social,  economic,  and  political  world  of 
the  nineteenth  and  early  twentieth  centuries,  the  world  we  have  been 
so  familiar  with  and  habituated  to,  is  in  a  state  of  decline  and  fall.  It 
is  still  with  us  indeed.  Except  in  Russia,  the  stress  and  emergency  of 
the  war  has  kept  it  together.  In  this  country,  so  little  racked  as  yet 
with  the  misery  of  the  great  conflict,  it  preserves  with  much  success  its 
former  outward  appearance.  But  here  and  everywhere  its  inner  vital¬ 
ity  is  sapped.  Its  friends  speak  in  whispers.  A  fatal  end  impends.  It 
is  about  to  pass  from  the  scene  forever  and  be  reckoned,  as  the  soldiers 
say,  a  “casuality.” 

As  Christians  and  as  Churchmen  we  do  not  need  to  bewail  its  demise. 
It  was  not  a  Christian  world.  It  was  without  understanding,  dull  in 
conscience,  shallow  in  heart.  It  was  mad  with  the  love  of  what  the 
New  Testament  calls  the  root  of  all  kinds  of  evil.  The  material  luxury 
it  sought  and  cultivated  is  the  enemy  of  the  things  of  the  spirit.  It 
was  deaf  to  the  appeal  of  the  cross,  uninterested  in  the  missionary 
enterprises  of  the  Church,  unresponsive  to  the  Christian  appeal  for 
brotherhood  and  social  justice.  Above  all,  it  was  too  content  with 
itself  to  be  in  any  sense  a  Christian  world.  We  will  not  regret  its  death 
and  we  can  turn  with  courage  and  alacrity  to  the  task  of  creating  in  its 
stead  a  new  world  which  shall  be  not  only  better  but  of  a  better  kind. 

This  is  all  of  course  only  figurative  language.  There  are  in  life  no 
clean-cut  endings  and  beginnings.  The  periods  and  epochs  into 
which  the  historian  divides  human  progress  have  no  actual  existence. 
Nowhere  shall  we  reach  the  end  of  the  old  or  the  beginning  of  the 
new.  The  new  has,  in  fact,  already  come.  We  are  living  already  in  a 
new  world,  with  its  new  hopes  and  fears,  its  searching  questionings, 
and  imperative  call  to  action. 


Our  whole  national  outlook  has  changed  with  the  tide  of  recent 
events.  With  what  rather  languid  interest  we  were  once  accustomed 
to  read  of  European  discussions  over  spheres  of  influence  in  northern 
Africa,  or  of  the  rival  constructions  of  strategic  railways  in  Asia,  or  of 
the  periodic  bomb-throwings  which  so  often  accompanied  the  peregrin¬ 
ations  of  the  royalties  of  the  old  world!  Now  even  the  dullest  can  un¬ 
derstand  how  such  things  have  plunged  our  peace-loving  nation  into  a 
great  war.  We  can  no  longer  sit  apart  from  the  nations  as  listless 
spectators  of  their  affairs.  The  old  policy  of  careless  isolation  has 
broken  down.  We  have  suddenly  become  active  participators  in  the 
politics  of  the  world,  and  have  taken  an  important  place  in  the  family 
of  nations. 

A  short  time  since  how  little  did  we  regard  the  lives  and  interests  of 
the  strange  colonies  of  European  folk  which  were  to  be  found  in  the 
great  industrial  centres  of  this  and  other  states!  Now,  even  the  undem¬ 
ocratic  have  been  aroused  by  the  shock  of  the  war  to  take  up  with 
energy  the  task  of  the  “Americanization,”  as  it  is  called,  of  these  our 
foreign-born  fellow  citizens.  We  are  acquiring  a  new  and  more  humane 
conception  of  our  civic  duties  of  every  sort.  We  are  almost  daily  startled 
at  the  strides  that  we  find  can  be  taken  without  protest  toward  the 
transformation  of  selfish,  long-established  habits.  We  welcome  govern¬ 
ment  regulation  of  the  details  of  our  daily  lives,  the  management  of 
our  food,  drink,  clothing,  transportation,  and,  what  is  more,  we  are 
voluntarily  responding  to  government  appeals  and  submitting  ourselves 
to  regulations  of  various  kinds.  Some  are  learning  for  the  first  time 
that  sacrifice  and  service  are  an  integral  part  of  life.  Most  important 
and  significant  of  all  is  the  splendid  enthusiasm  with  which  the  young 
men  of  the  nation  have  responded  to  the  call  to  military  service,  a 
response  which  is  at  once  a  break  with  the  old  and  the  promise  of  a 
new  and  better  order,  wherein  so  fine  a  spirit  shall  find  some  worthy 
field  for  its  expression  and  exercise. 

And  now  must  we  not  face  the  difficult  but  extremely  important 
question,  how  shall  the  spirit  of  the  Church  respond  to  the  new  spirit 
in  the  nation?  How  shall  the  Church  change  with  the  changing  age? 
For  the  fact  that  the  Church  will  continue  to  preach  its  everlasting 


4 


gospel,  to  teach  its  doctrines  and  administer  its  sacraments,  to  train 
men  in  faith  and  love  and  duty,  need  not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  it 
must  adapt  these  things  to  the  new  needs  of  the  time,  and  bring  out  of 
its  treasure  things  new,  as  well  as  things  old.  “The  Church  changes’’, 
says  Newman,  “that  it  may  remain  the  same.’’  It  has  changed  in 
every  age.  Change  is  one  of  the  marks  of  the  true  Church.  We  are 
bound  to  ask  ourselves,  then,  what  ought  the  Church  to  undertake  to 
do  in  the  face  of  the  new  needs  and  new  opportunities  in  the  national 
life?  What  ought  to  be  its  policy  and  programme? 

For  some  help  towards  answering  this  question  may  I  ask  you  to 
look  back  with  me  at  the  history  of  the  Church,  and  to  consider  for  a 
moment  how  it  has,  in  fact,  fulfilled  its  mission  in  the  changing  order  of 
the  civilization  of  Western  Europe. 

When  the  Christian  Church  began  its  career  in  the  world  a  great 
Empire  was  in  possession.  It  looms  in  the  background  of  the  New 
Testament  picture.  Caesar  Augustus  sends  out  a  decree  that  the  whole 
world  shall  be  taxed,  Pontius  Pilate  governs  Judea,  Claudius  banishes 
Christian  Jews  from  Rome,  the  Apostle  Paul,  a  free-born  Roman 
citizen,  is  taken  across  the  Mediterranean  to  make  his  appeal  in  Rome 
before  the  judgment  seat  of  the  Emperor  Nero. 

Within  this  great  Empire,  so  prosperous,  so  successful,  and  invincible, 
imposing  its  rule  on  the  whole  civilized  world  and  giving  peace  and 
order  to  the  nations,  the  Church  grew  into  being;  a  small,  voluntary 
society,  made  up  in  large  measure  of  the  humble  and  the  poor,  organ¬ 
ized  on  the  principles  of  democracy,  filled  with  the  spirit  of  brother¬ 
hood,  seeking  a  heavenly  not  an  earthly  kingdom.  Ignored  at  first,  it 
spread  both  in  adversity  and  prosperity.  It  became  the  rival  of  the 
empire,  and,  when  the  empire  fell,  the  Church  lived  on,  gathering  to 
itself  the  best  traditions  and  hopes  of  mankind. 

In  the  mediaeval  period  there  fell  to  the  Church  what  it  had  in  the 
earlier  period  despised,  a  kingdom  upon  this  earth.  It  took  up  the 
burden  of  civilization  which  the  Empire  had  dropped.  It  threw  itself 
into  the  stream  of  the  world’s  life.  It  acquired  property  and  learned 
to  defend  it.  In  a  time  of  confusion  its  bishops  were  constrained  to  act 
as  civil  magistrates  and  administrators.  Reaming  and  the  arts  survived 


under  its  protection.  Men’s  minds  as  well  as  their  persons  and  posses¬ 
sions  owned  its  sway.  All  humanity  and  all  human  life  became  its 
province.  Every  social  activity,  art,  science,  literature,  trade,  industry, 
politics,  war,  passed  within  the  dominating  influence  of  the  all-power¬ 
ful  Church.  At  its  head  was  a  pope.  And  we  shall  hardly  understand 
or  do  justice  to  the  mediaeval  papacy  unless  we  are  willing  to  see  it  at 
its  best  and  to  understand  how  it  was  lured  on  by  the  splendid  ideal  of 
a  unitary  state,  a  “league  of  nations”  if  you  will,  ruled  by  the  best,  a 
divine  gospel,  and  a  vicar  of  the  Perfect  One,  a  servant  of  the  servants 
of  God.  These  were  the  ages  of  faith,  and  the  supreme  act  of  faith 
was  the  Church’s  faith  in  itself,  so  stupendous  that  it  did  not  hesitate 
to  put  through  the  torture  of  the  Inquisition  those  who  dissented  from 
its  rule,  in  order  that  they  might  be  relieved  of  the  tortures  of  eternal 
damnation. 

In  the  modern  period,  which  begins  with  the  outbreak  of  the  Protes¬ 
tant  reformation,  the  Church  loses  its  unique  and  privileged  place. 
The  nations  become  independent  of  the  Church,  and  one  after  another 
of  the  various  human  activities  which  were  once  the  nurslings  of  the 
Church  pass  out  of  its  control.  In  the  Protestant  world  corporate 
religion  falls  into  discredit,  and  an  individualised  religion  takes  its 
place.  Subjective  experience  becomes  all-important.  If  the  dominant 
note  of  the  early  period  of  the  Church  was  that  of  a  kingdom  in  heaven, 
and  of  the  mediaeval  period  that  of  a  kingdom  on  earth,  the  last  period 
has,  in  general,  sought  its  kingdom  within  the  mind  of  man.  In  the 
modern  period,  too,  with  the  advent  of  natural  science,  has  come  the 
painstaking  study  of  the  Church’s  scriptures  and  of  its  traditional 
doctrines,  resulting  in  a  more  adequate  understanding  of  the  essentials 
of  the  Christian  faith.  And  the  Church  has  in  some  degree,  we  may 
hope,  risen  out  of  the  ignorance  and  worldliness  which  in  the  middle 
ages  so  greatly  neutralized  its  efforts  for  good. 

We  are  living  to-day  at  the  beginning,  perhaps,  of  another  great  age 
in  the  life  of  the  Church.  Can  we  relate  our  hopes  for  this  new  age 
to  the  Christian  tradition  of  the  centuries  past?  How  shall  we  do  so? 

From  the  early  period  we  can  and  must  revive  something  of  that 
passion  for  brotherhood  and  fellowship  which  characterized  the  first 


6 


Christian  communities.  We  must  recover,  too,  the  unity  of  organization 
which  was  the  necessary  embodiment  of  that  spirit  of  brotherhood  and 
fellowship.  We  must  conquer  our  unchristian  sectarian  rivalries  and 
divisions  and  exemplify  within  ourselves  the  Christian  principle  of 
neighborly  love  before  we  can  ever  advance  to  large  conquests  against 
the  powers  of  evil  in  the  world  without. 

We  shall  not  underestimate  our  inheritance  from  the  modern  period. 
We  may  hope  to  retain  its  respect  for  conscience,  its  appreciation  of 
the  worth  of  the  individual  and  of  the  subjective  elements  in  religion, 
its  zeal  for  truth. 

But  to-day  are  we  not  looking  for  some  larger  conception  of  religion 
than  that  which  has  prevailed  so  widely  since  the  days  of  L,uther  and 
Calvin?  In  the  Church  as  in  the  nation  the  need  is  for  something  more 
uplifting  and  compelling  than  even  the  best  form  of  individualism. 
We  seek  the  conversion  of  individuals,  yes;  but  how  impotent  is  the 
converted  individual  in  an  unconverted  society!  Individual  penitence, 
yes;  but  a  collection  of  penitent  individuals  will  never  make  a  regener¬ 
ate  society  and  what  we  really  need  is  whole  nations,  cities,  com¬ 
munities,  Churches,  penitent,  and  doing  works  meet  for  repentance. 

So  we  are  brought  back,  are  we  not?  to  face  the  task  which  con¬ 
fronted  the  mediaeval  Church,  and  to  desire  nothing  less  than  the 
redemption  of  society  itself.  Recognizing  that  individual  redemption 
can  become  effective  only  in  a  redeemed  social  order,  our  ambition 
must  be  to  win  acceptance  of  the  gospel  by  society  no  less  than  by  the 
individual.  We  shall  desire  to  bring  our  religion  to  bear  on  all  the 
social  activities  of  the  modern  world,  and  to  labor  for  a  new  politics,  a 
new  trade,  a  new  industry,  a  new  art,  literature,  and  science,  permeated 
through  and  through  with  the  Christian  ideal.  The  mediaeval  Church 
grievously  failed;  and  this  was  in  part,  certainly,  for  the  reason  that  it 
never  frankly  faced  its  task.  We,  too,  may  fail;  but  at  least  we  can 
frankly  avow  our  purpose,  and  can  set  ourselves  consciously,  and,  if  we 
will,  with  devotion  and  hope,  to  the  task  of  building  up  here  on  this 
earth  in  our  own  time  a  veritable  kingdom  of  God. 

If  we  look  toward  the  political  sphere,  we  must  needs  see  in  the 
present  international  situation  an  inspiring  challenge  to  Christian  effort. 


7 


Our  country  has  come  to  a  moment  of  extraordinary  opportunity.  The 
thoughtful  Christian  believer  cannot  doubt  that  God  has  chosen  this 
people  as  truly  as  of  old  he  chose  the  Israelites  for  a  work  of  peculiar 
service  to  the  nations  of  the  world.  “We  fight,”  says  President  Wilson, 
“without  rancor  and  without  selfish  object,  seeking  nothing  for  our¬ 
selves  but  what  we  shall  wish  to  share  with  all  free  peoples.”  We  knowr 
this  to  be  true;  our  motives  are  pure.  We  are  free  from  many  of  the 
age-long  prejudices  which  afflict  peoples  less  young  than  ourselves. 
Our  resources  in  money  and  in  other  sorts  of  wealth  are  immeasurable, 
and  for  the  most  part  untouched  by  the  war.  We  are,  in  fact,  in  a 
position  to  work  effectively  for  a  peace  settlement  on  the  principles  of 
charity  no  less  than  justice,  and  for  an  era  of  good-will  following 
peace.  National  animosities  and  rivalries  have  been  beyond  measure 
sharpened  and  embittered  by  the  war;  they  will  not  quickly  subside. 
On  the  other  hand  friendships  have  been  formed  and  tested  and 
deepened.  We  face  a  day  of  decision.  Are  we  to  build  our  new 
national  and  international  politics  on  the  friendship  and  go  on  to 
greater  friendships,  or  on  the  rivalries  and  go  on  to  a  round  of  unend¬ 
ing  rivalry?  It  is  a  question.  But  there  ought  to  be  no  question  as  to 
the  Church’s  mind,  and  as  to  the  side  on  which  the  whole  impact  of  its 
influence  should  be  brought  to  bear.  Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt 
that  the  influence  which  the  Christian  Church  could  exert  would  be 
decisive,  and  fruitful  of  enormous  good. 

Our  people  have  made  sacrifices  during  the  war  for  our  allies.  We 
have  done  it  in  order  to  win  the  war.  But  when  the  danger  is  past,  and 
enthusiasm  dies  down,  what  shall  we  do?  How  about  the  restoration  of 
shattered  towns  and  devastated  provinces?  How  about  the  feeding  of 
hungry  friends  and  enemies?  How  about  the  war  debts  of  the  nations 
which  fought  for  our  liberties  long  before  we  entered  the  war?  Shall 
our  rich  fortunate  country  come  to  the  rescue  as  a  Christian  brother 
and  bear  all  it  can  of  the  common  burden,  or  shall  we  hug  our  wealth 
and  draw  back  into  a  selfish  national  indifference  to  the  misfortunes  of 
the  old  world?  What  shall  the  Church  do  to  inspire  the  nation  to  great 
adventures  in  helpfulness,  to  a  chivalrous  spirit  adequate  to  the  needs 
of  humanity?  This  is  our  day  of  decision.  It  is  a  time,  certainly,  for 


8 


the  Church  to  revive  all  its  traditions,  and  they  are  many  and  glorious, 
which  identify  it  with  works  of  friendliness  and  reconciliation  and 
unification,  a  time  to  cultivate  that  pure  religion  which  is  so  potent  a 
force  in  destroying  the  barriers  between  nations,  which  ignorance  and 
indifference,  sloth,  pride,  and  prejudice  so  readily  and  effectively  build. 

Again,  consider  what  it  might  mean  to  win  the  acceptance  of  Chris¬ 
tian  principles  in  trade.  It  is  a  truism  to  say  that  trade  as  now  carried 
on  is  war.  Conducted  under  rules,  to  be  sure,  and  with  some  regard 
to  public  opinion,  as  all  warfare  is,  with  a  certain  mercy  to  the  non- 
combatant  and  to  those  who  are  put  hors  de  combat,  but  in  general  ruled 
only  by  expediency,  essentially  unfeeling,  giving  its  rewards  now  to 
the  strongest,  now  to  the  possessing  and  privileged. 

In  the  present  crisis  all  governments  have  in  an  unprecedented  way 
undertaken  the  supervision  of  trade  and  finance,  and  regulated  them 
for  the  common  good.  But  after  the  war  what  ?  The  world  will  be 
poorer  by  many  billions.  There  will  be  a  demand  for  capitalistic 
effort,  and  a  rush  for  trade  advantage.  There  will  be  a  temptation  to 
foster  monopolies,  to  favor  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many,  and  to 
indulge  in  new  forms  of  corporate  selfishness.  It  must  be  the  part  of 
the  Church  to  help  in  the  creation  of  a  new  standard  of  business  ethics 
superior  to  the  old.  The  Church  must  press  home  Plato’s  question, 
“  What  is  justice  ?”  And  it  must  not  be  put  off  with  an  answer  which 
conforms  to  existing  convention,  but  does  not  satisfy  conscience,  nor 
fit  the  realities  of  life.  Business  can  doubtless  be  so  organized  that  its 
rewards  shall  go  less  generally  than  now  to  the  shrewd  and  merciless, 
and  more  often  to  the  generous  and  public-spirited,  and  conditions  can 
be  secured  that  will  make  of  a  business  career  an  opportunity  for  altru¬ 
istic  service  as  promising  as  the  Christian  ministry  itself. 

Time  fails  for  an  exercise  of  the  imagination  on  the  application  in 
detail  of  Christian  principles  to  the  many  realms  of  social  activity, 
to  industry  and  art,  literature,  philosophy,  and  education.  Industrial 
problems  will  certainly  press  for  solution  after  the  war.  The  situation 
will  not  be  met  by  improvement  of  conditions  merely.  There  must  be 
a  new  order.  The  demand  of  the  worker  for  a  life  of  self-respecting 
freedom,  for  the  opportunity  to  exercise  individuality  and  the  creative 


9 


impulse  in  his  work,  for  a  larger  share  in  the  control,  and  a  larger 
financial  return  from  the  product,  of  his  labor  is  sure  to  grow  more 
urgent.  The  clergy  if  they  are  ever  to  make  this  Church  a  Church 
of  the  whole  people  and  not  the  Church  of  a  class  simply  must  become 
the  champions  of  other  interests  than  those  of  the  wealthy  and  privi¬ 
leged.  They  must  give  the  Church  some  worthy  share  in  the  further¬ 
ance  of  the  coming  industrial  democracy.  Art  to  the  Christian  must 
cease  to  be  merely  the  plaything  of  the  rich;  it  must  be,  as  it  was  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  of  the  people  and  for  the  people;  the  Church  has  no 
more  honorable  tradition  than  that  it  has  been  the  patron  of  the  arts 
and  the  promoter  of  civilization  and  culture.  Literature,  philosophy, 
and  education  can  under  the  touch  of  the  Gospel  receive  an  access  of 
life,  and  gain  a  new  dignity  and  usefulness  as  they  take  their  place  in 
the  new  order,  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Such  is  the  task  that  confronts  the  Church.  It  is  not  a  small  or  an 
easy  one.  Indeed  a  programme  so  large  may  well  seem  impracticable 
or  perhaps  unattainable  for  any  Church,  even  one  much  more  enlight¬ 
ened  or  Christian  than  any  that  exists  or  is  likely  to  exist  in  our  time. 
But  to  the  Christian  disciple  the  question  should  not  be  how  difficult  ? 
but  how  right?  No  task  need  be  too  large  or  arduous  for  a  Church 
with  a  divine  mission,  a  Church  which  can  be,  to  use  Augustine’s 
phrase,  “patient  because  eternal.” 

And  there  is  another  and  peculiar  reason  why  our  generation  may  go 
on  with  confidence  and  hope.  We  have  at  our  hand  a  great,  hitherto 
unused,  source  of  power;  long  known,  it  is  true,  in  name,  and  much 
acclaimed,  but  little  understood,  and  quite  unrecognized  in  the  great¬ 
ness  of  its  possibilities  for  good.  I  refer  to  Christian  education. 
Upon  education  and  its  unused  resources  thoughtful  men  to-day  are 
resting  their  hopes  for  reforming  and  rebuilding  the  world  after 
the  war.  Upon  Christian  education,  if  it  be  of  the  right  quality,  the 
Church  may  well  rely. 

This  brings  us  to  the  subject  of  education  for  the  ministry — which 
must  be  the  urgent  concern,  obviously,  of  any  plan  of  Christian  edu¬ 
cation.  The  educational  institution  where  we  are  met  is  engaged  pri¬ 
marily  in  the  work  of  training  candidates  for  the  Christian  ministry. 

10 


And  it  is  the  importance  of  such  work  to  the  Church  and  to  society, 
always  great  but  doubly  so  in  these  critical  times,  that  gives  a  special 
significance  to  the  exercises  of  this  day. 

In  a  few  months  we  shall  see  our  young  men  by  the  tens  of  thousands 
returning  from  the  trenches  across  the  sea,  returning,  many  of  them, 
we  cannot  doubt,  with  the  grim  determination  in  their  hearts  that  the 
sacrifices  they  and  their  brethren  have  made  shall  not  have  been 
in  vain,  but  that  the  new  world  they  are  to  have  a  hand  in  building 
shall  be  fashioned  into  a  different  world  from  the  old,  and  a  better  one. 
Many  are  the  forms  of  service  which  will  lie  open  before  these  young 
men.  There  will  be  opportunities  unparalleled  for  business  men,  for 
captains  of  industry,  for  labor  leaders,  for  philanthropists,  for  educa¬ 
tors.  Even  a  commonplace  vocation  like  farming  will  take  on  enor¬ 
mous  romance  when  it  may  be  the  means  of  producing  food  for  a  world 
which  during  four  years  has  been  neglecting  plows  and  pruning  hooks 
for  spears  and  swords,  and  in  consequence,  as  some  think,  actually 
faces  starvation. 

Some  of  these  young  men  will  offer  themselves  for  the  Christian 
ministry.  They  will  not  be  deterred  because  the  task  set  before  them 
is  too  great  or  the  Church’s  ideal  pitched  too  high.  But  they  will 
expect,  and  they  will  have  the  right  to  expect,  that  the  education  offered 
them  shall  be  adequate  to  the  greatness  of  the  task  to  which  they 
are  ready  to  devote  their  lives.  It  is  our  privilege  to  plan  and  to  provide 
for  them  such  an  adequate  education. 

What,  then,  could  be  considered  an  adequate  and  worthy  training 
for  the  life  and  work  of  those  who  will  offer  themselves  for  the  minis¬ 
try  of  the  Christian  Church  ?  It  may  be  possible  to  summarize  briefly 
some  of  its  chief  characteristics. 

In  the  first  place,  education  for  the  ministry  should  partake  of  the 
qualities  of  all  good  education.  It  should  cultivate  accuracy  in  think¬ 
ing,  clarity  in  expression,  appreciation  of  the  true,  the  good,  and  the 
beautiful,  discipline  of  the  will,  self-knowledge.  It  should  eschew  the 
wholesale,  mechanical  methods  of  the  modern  American  university 
system,  so  alien  and  inferior  to  our  English  tradition.  It  should  never 
be  deceived  into  thinking  that  the  classification,  evaluation,  and 


11 


aggregation  of  subjects  and  courses  has  any  important  part  to  play  in 
real  education,  nor  should  it  attempt  to  force  the  expanding  intellectual 
life  of  the  eager  learner  into  traditional  ways  of  thought  and  fields  of 
study  which  are  so  often,  probably,  as  distasteful  and  depressing  to  his 
instructor  as  to  the  student  himself.  Good  education  should  encourage 
spontaneity,  freedom,  and  individuality.  It  should  fit  for  life.  In  short, 
a  divinity  school,  like  any  other  school,  would,  if  it  were  efficient, 
somehow  contrive  to  bring  the  best  and  most  significant  things  to  bear 
upon  the  life  and  thought  of  the  student,  it  would  provide  that  indi¬ 
vidual  attention  which  makes  for  the  elimination  of  faults  and  the 
encouragement  of  all  right  effort,  it  would  create  an  atmosphere  and 
environment  wherein  the  student’s  powers  could  develop  naturally  in 
their  full  strength,  it  would  seek  to  prepare  him  to  become  the  most 
useful  possible  member  of  the  society  in  which  he  is  to  live  and  work. 

Second,  education  for  the  ministry  must  mean  special  training  in 
religious  devotion  and  Christian  character.  The  divinity  school  differs 
essentially  from  a  university  faculty  in  that  it  is  a  Christian  school. 
The  divinity  school  professor  in  the  relation  he  may  assume  toward  his 
pupils  is  quite  unlike  a  professor  of  medicine  or  law.  He  cannot  escape 
the  responsibility  of  being  the  pastor,  guide,  counsellor,  and  friend  as 
well  as  the  class-room  preceptor  to  those  whom  the  Church  has  com¬ 
mitted  to  his  care.  We  may  assume  that  earnest  devotion  exists  in 
those  who  seek  a  training  in  divinity,  but  the  fresh,  warm  zeal  of  the 
new-comer  sometimes,  it  is  to  be  feared,  finds  the  dissecting  method  of 
the  ordinary  lecture  room  a  chilling  and  disappointing  experience.  This 
may  be  inevitable  and  healthy  as  a  beginning,  but  it  should  not  be  the 
end.  The  student’s  progress  through  the  divinity  school  course  should 
be  a  progress  in  deepening  religious  conviction  and  in  Christian 
character. 

Third,  it  should  be,  obviously,  an  education  not  only  in  the  art  of 
living,  but  in  the  arts  and  occupations  peculiar  to  the  ministerial  and 
priestly  calling.  The  ordinand  must  be  trained  in  the  conduct  of  wor¬ 
ship,  in  reading,  preaching,  and  music.  He  should  be  trained  in  pasto¬ 
ral  work  and  in  whatever  practical  activities  may  be  essential  to  his 
professional  efficiency. 


12 


Fourth,  it  should  furnish  a  knowledge  of  the  Christian  tradition  and 
of  Christian  truth.  This  may  mean  great  learning.  Ill  betide  the 
Church  which  has  no  great  thinkers  and  investigators  engaged  in  the 
pursuit  of  truth  for  its  own  sake,  able  by  their  clearer  vision  to  shep¬ 
herd  the  multitude  into  the  superior  path.  The  work  of  creative  schol¬ 
arship  belongs  more,  perhaps,  to  the  theological  university  than  to  the 
divinity  school  which  trains  for  the  parochial  ministry.  But  every 
training  school  for  the  clergy  must  cultivate  that  love  of  the  truth,  that 
openness  of  mind,  that  patience  and  humility  in  learning,  which  are  the 
fruits  of  scholarship  and  science  at  its  best. 

In  the  fifth  place  it  should  give  to  the  candidate  for  the  ministry  some 
knowledge  and  understanding  of  the  world  in  which  he  is  to  live  and 
to  exercise  his  office.  It  is  here  that  the  traditional  divinity  curriculum 
most  needs  revision.  If  the  Church’s  task  is  to  be  the  redemption  of 
society,  the  people  will  expect  of  the  clergy  very  intelligent  and  very 
well-informed  leadership.  If  the  Church  is  to  fulfil  its  mission  to  all 
mankind  the  clergy  must  be  men  who  can  understand,  minister  to,  and 
win  the  allegiance  of  their  fellow  men  of  whatever  vocation,  political 
creed,  financial  status,  social  position,  or  moral  condition.  They  must 
understand  movements  as  well  as  men,  and  learn  to  win  them  in  the 
only  possible  way,  namely,  by  recognizing  whatever  in  them  is  true, 
and  by  bearing  witness  to  and  claiming  for  the  glory  of  the  Christian 
God  and  his  kingdom  whatever  in  them  is  beautiful  and  good.  They 
must  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  bad  as  well  as  the  good  in  men  and 
in  movements.  It  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  within  the  best  Christian  tra¬ 
dition  that  the  clergy  should  be  men  of  affairs.  Cyprian,  Chrysostom, 
Gregory  the  Great,  Arnold  of  Brescia,  Hugh  of  Lincoln,  John  Colet, 
Vincent  de  Paul,  John  Wesley,  Charles  Kingsley  are  representative 
names  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  There  have  been  such  men  in 
almost  every  age.  There  are  such  among  the  clergy  to-day — men  who 
can  read  the  signs  of  their  time,  who  can  sympathize  with  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  of  all  serious-minded  men  and  women,  who  can  cooperate 
understanding^  with  all  forces  for  good  and  can  thus  bring  the  power 
of  Christ  and  his  Church  to  bear  in  fullest  measure  on  their  day  and  gen¬ 
eration.  It  is  not  necessary  that  the  divinity  student  should  take  all 

13 


knowledge  for  his  province,  but  a  little  learning  may  easily  result  in  a 
large  sympathy,  an  access  of  humility,  and  a  desire  for  greater  knowl 
edge.  Such  a  result  his  training  should  achieve. 

But  Christian  education  means,  of  course,  much  more  than  education 
for  the  ministry;  and  divinity  schools  may  well  become  places  where 
many  others  beside  candidates  for  the  ministry  shall  seek  counsel,  and 
religious  teaching,  and  intellectual  guidance.  Education  is  not  some¬ 
thing  only  for  the  young.  There  is  no  standing  still  in  the  intellectual 
life,  no  point  where  we  are  beyond  the  need  for  fresh  stimulus  and  new 
outlooks.  Reading  is  an  essential  part  of  the  well-ordered  clerical  life, 
and  guidance  in  reading  may  well  come  from  a  divinity  school  faculty, 
whose  members  have  the  training  and  the  leisure  for  acquiring  knowl¬ 
edge  which  the  parish  priest  does  not  usually  enjoy.  Instruction  for 
layreaders,  organists,  Sunday  School  teachers,  and  other  parochial 
workers  could  also  be  successfully  carried  on  from  the  divinity  school 
as  a  centre. 

And  this  enlargement  of  its  field  of  usefulness  would  greatly  enrich 
the  divinity  school  itself.  Those  who  came  to  it  from  the  outside 
would  bring  the  practical  knowledge,  the  sympathy, the  spirit  of  earnest¬ 
ness  and  the  zeal  which  it  is  the  privilege  of  the  parish  priest  and  the 
active  Church  worker  to  gather  in  full  measure  from  their  first-hand 
experience  in  meeting  human  needs.  Few  ethical  and  practical  prob¬ 
lems  are  solved  by  the  labor  of  the  solitary  thinker.  Light  upon  diffi¬ 
culties  is  more  likely  to  come  from  bringing  together  the  report  of  the 
experiences  of  many  lives.  The  divinity  school  should  be  a  place  for 
conference  and  the  exchange  and  supplementing  of  experiences.  Such 
cooperation  between  the  school  and  the  parish  would  seem  to  be  an 
ideal  condition  for  promoting  in  an  effective  way  the  Church’s  mission 
of  redemption. 

That  the  Berkeley  Divinity  School  may  live  up  to  the  highest  ideals, 
educational  and  Christian,  is,  I  know,  the  desire  of  all  who  are  met  here 
to-day  to  do  it  honor.  It  is  not  only  those  who  love  it  who  can  see  in  it 
a  favored  place.  Situated  in  the  oldest  diocese  of  this  Church,  and  in  a 
state  supreme  in  the  industrial  sphere  and  crammed  with  the  foreign- 
born,  it  cannot  escape  contact  with  both  the  old  and  the  new.  Working 


14 


in  closest  harmony  with  all  diocesan  activities,  yet  completely  in¬ 
dependent  of  diocesan  control,  it  draws  its  students  year  after  year 
from  widely  separated  dioceses,  and  sends  out  its  graduates  to  every 
corner  of  the  land.  With  a  tradition  of  sane  and  large-minded  church- 
manship,  with  a  record  of  devoted  service,  with  the  affectionate  devo¬ 
tion  of  many  sons,  it  may  well  look  forward  to  a  continuance  of  useful 
work  for  the  spread  in  the  world  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  to  a 
future  which  shall  be  worthy  of  its  traditions,  its  opportunity,  and  the 
needs  of  the  new  age. 


SUPPLEMENT  TO  BERKELEY  DIVINITY  SCHOOL  BULLETIN,  DECEMBER,  1918 


15 


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